Mark posted this in the Lounge but I think this word needs to get out to all our main forum posters regarding the financial health of this place.

Remember we accept no moneys from business because we all wanted to have a site without popups.

The Amazon connection has been a huge help but we need to do 2 things. We need to remind our friends to buy at Amazon using our address so the site gets a small bit for the business.

The other: Read this comment from Mark about contributions being down. Getting near the giving season, don't forget to put Seahawks.net on your Christmas list.

See where it says the moneys we used in the past was for ONE TENTH of the volume of the traffic we have now, so please help where you can. Its that or start finding other methods of financing this please we all love.

"RolandDeschain wrote:Yeah, I use EC2 just to host my Mumble voice chat server, and an FTP server/generic website for hosting public things. Pennies per month. I've been thinking about checking out Google's offerings, though. EC2 needs some competition.

We're moving towards something similar. The current setup was architected 3 years ago when we were at 10% of the amount of traffic we are now, so it's time to put our big boy pants on.

Of course, the issue with that is that it's more expensive, and if you hadn't noticed, we're behind in donations this year, even with the Amazon clicks. Hopefully people get charitable during the holiday season because my wife will be the one going to the data center and unplugging us if I have to keep subsidizing the site."

SacHawk2.0 wrote:.Net is definitely on my Christmas list. But I would like to know what the goal is for the site, and what percentage we're at to hitting it. An updated graphic in a sticky'd post would be great.

If you go to the board index it shows up down near the bottom just above the people who are online:

Ending on Mon Dec 31, 2012We have collected $1349.50 so far, out of our goal of $2600 52% of our goal has been reached!

I've been coming here for years also...completely enjoyed the site and its posters (well, most of them.....lol) but I've never donated...shame on me!!! Sooooooo............I just got us a decent % closer to our goal.....I challenge 9 more to match to finish getting us there...do the math and match away....Goooo .NETTERS!!!! and Goooo Hawks!

Since we're on the subject....I'd like to thank ALL the Admins......PAST, PRESENT...and FUTURE for all their hard work! This site allows us all to discuss and support our Hawks throughout the year, and not just during the season.I think we all know how much this place means to us, its the old "you don't know what you got til its gone" thing. Like recently...."refresh"..."refresh"...is it back up yet?...."refresh"...."refresh".....ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Thanks Les for bringing this up, I'm not the kind to bring it up and ask (pride) so I appreciate it.

Thank you for all the donations tonight guys, that's great. I'll update the stats tomorrow and keep them updated throughout the week.

Oh, and for the last 3 years $2800 has been the goal (exact cost of hosting the site), but I think we need to get closer to $3500 since we'll most likely be migrating to an enterprise-class setup very soon.

Hey guys, question here. How can we set up our amazon account to always go through .Net? If someone could send me a PM on that I would appreicate it.

I will also send a little money your way. Money is a little tighter than last time, but I'll send some your way.

Thanks again for the great site. when it goes down I get lost....

Easiest way to have the Amazon link work for you without having to always come here and click it would be to click it and when the page opens, go ahead and bookmark that page. Then when you want to go to Amazon, just use that bookmark and it should always work. I'm sure they'll let us know if the link ever changes.

duckypoo wrote:I'll be moving soon so expect me to make a large series of Amazon purchases under the link. Any idea to the take % from Amazon?

Unfortunately I can't contribute much more - but as a former admin of several forums, webserver, game servers, etc I can sympathize. Thanks for always having IRC available

The Amazon associates program pays out 0-8% depending on the category and how many referrals have been generated so far that month. The maximum commission is I think $25.00, but they changed their operating agreement this past June or July, and a few commission structures were tweaked.

"Are we rockin' and rollin' or what?!''

-- Seattle coach Pete Carroll, celebrating with his coaches after the Seahawks pulled off a trade with the Jets, netting running back Leon Washington on Saturday, via Seahawks.com

At present, I'm in the midst of finishing the new shop and am virtually penniless. Every red cent I make is paying for new vehicle lifts, shop and safety equipment, garage insurance payments, (et. al.). Trust me, If I had it, I would donate, post haste. In fact, I had to write a $10,700.00 check yesterday to cover my portion of the general contractor's fee.

Come this time next month, I will make a donation that should make significant progress toward the goal or if already met, should give you a head start on the next one. If a dude that owes me pays sooner than I expect, I'll make it happen.

"...Seattle has become the capital city of the New NFL" - Kip Earlywine Remembering "The Radish"...

I am not really sure about when a .net becomes a .com, but here is a suggestion that I've seen work on a site where I have just short of 20,000 posts.

The first thing I would do to this site is to make things like avatars/forum searches/thread posts only available to donating "team members." While I appreciate having these options here, and I do love that this site exists, I don't think that it would be unreasonable to ask those of us who use these features to cough up a little dough--say like maybe ~$25--for a basic membership. I would also have "restricted access" forums like a "First string board" or something.

As for ME, I do plan on donating to this site...as soon as I finally get my post 9/11 GI bill BAH stipend (which may be a loooooong time). Until then, the single income here at my place goes towards taking care of my kids.

Until then, I just want to say THANK YOU for this awesome site. I do pledge to donate some $$$ as soon as it becomes available, and would happily buy a team membership if the plan I suggested were actually implemented.

Just made a donation but as I think Volsung pointed out, the donation tally doesn't seem to update. Maybe once Rock accepts payment? Anyway, if it is possible to get the latest donation levels displayed that would be useful, in case one wants to donate again later if we are missing on making the goal?

I did see an auction idea floated before the board had to be restored. I also think a cool idea would be meeting at a local dive, reserve a few tables, and everyone kickdown $20 bucks. Good cause, good oppurtunity to meet cool people. Ill auction a free punch to my midsection, whatever it takes.

Ya know, I've been living relatively okay off severance, but not enough to donate. Well, not being able to donate has me debating working. That sounds oddly horrible, but, its truth.

drdiags wrote:Just made a donation but as I think Volsung pointed out, the donation tally doesn't seem to update. Maybe once Rock accepts payment? Anyway, if it is possible to get the latest donation levels displayed that would be useful, in case one wants to donate again later if we are missing on making the goal?

I donated a couple nights ago and it appears everything went through, but an update on the total would be nice so I know if I need to kick in some more.

UPDATE: We've more than met our yearly goal now! You've unbelievably donated over $1,000 in the past week. Wow, and thank you to everyone!

And Les is exactly right; sorry for the delay in the amounts showing up, but I had posted most of them 2 nights ago, and then we lost the data and I have to start all over again. We're camping up a mountain near Mt Rainier so no internet (I'm sending this via phone when I found a small signal). I'll try to get it posted up and your status updated by Monday.

Again, thank you all. This will get us moving on the newer, bigger, and better hosting situation right away. Thank you again.

UPDATE: We've more than met our yearly goal now! You've unbelievably donated over $1,000 in the past week. Wow, and thank you to everyone!

And Les is exactly right; sorry for the delay in the amounts showing up, but I had posted most of them 2 nights ago, and then we lost the data and I have to start all over again. We're camping up a mountain near Mt Rainier so no internet (I'm sending this via phone when I found a small signal). I'll try to get it posted up and your status updated by Monday.

Again, thank you all. This will get us moving on the newer, bigger, and better hosting situation right away. Thank you again.

UPDATE: We've more than met our yearly goal now! You've unbelievably donated over $1,000 in the past week. Wow, and thank you to everyone!

And Les is exactly right; sorry for the delay in the amounts showing up, but I had posted most of them 2 nights ago, and then we lost the data and I have to start all over again. We're camping up a mountain near Mt Rainier so no internet (I'm sending this via phone when I found a small signal). I'll try to get it posted up and your status updated by Monday.

Again, thank you all. This will get us moving on the newer, bigger, and better hosting situation right away. Thank you again.

I will still kick in some $$$ when it becomes possible! This is a great site--it's the least I can do.

I know you don't like to ask for money, but I think that when the Amazon deal kicked in, many people might have assumed that would be enough and the idea of donating may have slipped their minds.

These reminders should pop up periodically, enough to nudge people to send some financial help, but not enough to be annoying, if you get my drift.

As evidenced recently, this is actually a pretty generous community overall and most are willing to give and keep the site running for those less fortunate as well as for themselves. Personally, I need to Gibbs-slap myself from time to time to remind myself what is really important, like Seahawks football and friends.

Talent can get you to the playoffs.It takes character to win when you get there.SUPER BOWL XLVIII CHAMPIONS

UPDATE: We've more than met our yearly goal now! You've unbelievably donated over $1,000 in the past week. Wow, and thank you to everyone!

And Les is exactly right; sorry for the delay in the amounts showing up, but I had posted most of them 2 nights ago, and then we lost the data and I have to start all over again. We're camping up a mountain near Mt Rainier so no internet (I'm sending this via phone when I found a small signal). I'll try to get it posted up and your status updated by Monday.

Again, thank you all. This will get us moving on the newer, bigger, and better hosting situation right away. Thank you again.

I will still kick in some $$$ when it becomes possible! This is a great site--it's the least I can do.

Speakin of which, I sent a pm over a week ago asking for the address and have yet to recieve a response. Still looking to donate

Hope yall got mine and will now have this in mind for the furture. Almost had to spend time with the family ewwww. GO HAWKS. Thank you too all the mods that make this work.

God Bless America and God Bless the SEATTLE SEAHAWKS - TEZ

Mike Bullene ‏@12thManM1ke 45m@TDESPN Though, you did say the other night you cannot win the SB riding a defense. Even though you are literally the poster child for that. --twittered back at dilfer after he tried to slam hawks fans.

Been following .NET for ten years, even won a helmet in a contest many years ago on this site, and only just now contributed. This forum has been my #1 Seahawks fix for years, thanks for all you guys do!

pehawk wrote:I did see an auction idea floated before the board had to be restored. I also think a cool idea would be meeting at a local dive, reserve a few tables, and everyone kickdown $20 bucks. Good cause, good oppurtunity to meet cool people. Ill auction a free punch to my midsection, whatever it takes.Ya know, I've been living relatively okay off severance, but not enough to donate. Well, not being able to donate has me debating working. That sounds oddly horrible, but, its truth.

Whatever it takes.

I will start the bidding at $100. That would be super fun.......for me.

Update: $220 more donated. We're up to almost $3000 including some checks I received (thanks Big Pumpkin!)

Again, please be patient about your donations showing up at the bottom and your titles updating. It's a long, manual process that I can't seem to force any of my underpaid army of flying monkeys to do for me.

pehawk wrote:I did see an auction idea floated before the board had to be restored. I also think a cool idea would be meeting at a local dive, reserve a few tables, and everyone kickdown $20 bucks. Good cause, good oppurtunity to meet cool people. Ill auction a free punch to my midsection, whatever it takes.Ya know, I've been living relatively okay off severance, but not enough to donate. Well, not being able to donate has me debating working. That sounds oddly horrible, but, its truth.

Whatever it takes.

I will start the bidding at $100. That would be super fun.......for me.

Well I'm guessing pe is paying for the airline ticket from Anchorage???

Or I'll bet Bob would let you hitchhike in his luggage when he comes down.

pehawk wrote:I did see an auction idea floated before the board had to be restored. I also think a cool idea would be meeting at a local dive, reserve a few tables, and everyone kickdown $20 bucks. Good cause, good oppurtunity to meet cool people. Ill auction a free punch to my midsection, whatever it takes.

Ya know, I've been living relatively okay off severance, but not enough to donate. Well, not being able to donate has me debating working. That sounds oddly horrible, but, its truth.

Whatever it takes.

I don't even know him, but I will pay $20 to punch pehawk in the midsection!

"I want to drink Ranier Beer out of a mug made from Jim harbaugh's hollowed out skull." CANHAWK

pehawk wrote:I did see an auction idea floated before the board had to be restored. I also think a cool idea would be meeting at a local dive, reserve a few tables, and everyone kickdown $20 bucks. Good cause, good oppurtunity to meet cool people. Ill auction a free punch to my midsection, whatever it takes.Ya know, I've been living relatively okay off severance, but not enough to donate. Well, not being able to donate has me debating working. That sounds oddly horrible, but, its truth.

Whatever it takes.

I will start the bidding at $100. That would be super fun.......for me.

Damn, I was outbid before I even cast my bid. Well done Zagnut. I'll tell you what, I will pay my $20 just to watch you punch Pehawk in the midsection!

"I want to drink Ranier Beer out of a mug made from Jim harbaugh's hollowed out skull." CANHAWK